Autor: Vidosav Petrović
Strana: 387
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Viewing the whole of the travel literature about Niš from earlier and more recent times, scattered and presented in various publications and within the context of diverse works and needs, the editor of the anthology entitled Niš in the Travel Writings still found it to be an autochthon and precious material in which, in a chronological arrangement, it is possible to notice many particuliarities and phenomena just as some continuities can be followed; thus, the city of Niš and its people can be regarded not only as a specific entity with many particularities but also as an unavoidable factor in approaching the histories of many states and empires in time. This conception that assumes the travel fragments focused upon one single city had, as its most serious obstacle, the very fragmentary material itself with all its shortcomings. Still, it turned out that, regardless of taking out the given excerpts from the most diverse entities, the very chronological presentation - that is, thanks to particular elements and aspects that permeate them, binding them into a whole - has helped the creation of an entirely new quality, that is, a travel chronicle written by the collective author about almost two millennia of the existence and development of the city of Niš. The chronicle seems to appear, to put it metaphorically, as a "string of tales", that is a story that very often has its contents and developments, its "heroes" and events, ambiance and atmosphere. Beside the writers themselves, the "heroes" are particular historical figures and common people that the writers happened to have met; still, the heroes can easily become some of the urban and historical factors of the town such as thebridges upon theNišava, a horrifying monument of the Skull Tower, and others. This kind of chronicle follows closely the history of Niš though, as is easy to notice, it is very often firmly intertwined with it.